1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color identifying device and a gas identifying device, and more particularly to a color identifying device for identifying colors of reaction surfaces which are produced by a chemical reaction and a gas identifying device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have heretofore been known gas detecting devices for causing a chemical reaction between a gas such as a toxic gas and chemical reagents to change the colors of the chemical reagents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,657B1 discloses an M256 chemical agent detection kit.
The gas detecting device includes a plurality of ampules containing respective chemical reagents of different types and a plurality of mediums (reaction surfaces). When the ampules are crushed, the chemical reagents contained therein flow into the mediums.
The chemical reagents, as they flow into the mediums, chemically react with a gas that is held in contact with the mediums. The chemical reaction causes the chemical reagents to change their colors, and the mediums also change their colors depending on the color changes of the chemical reagents.
The user of the gas detecting device introduces different chemical reagents into the respective mediums, and recognizes the concentration of the gas based on the color changes of the mediums.
There are also known color identifying devices in the art. The user can objectively determine the colors of the mediums (chemical reagents) of the gas detecting device by using a color identifying device to identify the colors of the mediums.
One known color identifying device has three photodetectors and three optical filters associated respectively with the photodetectors.
If it is assumed that the photodetectors produce respective outputs X, Y, Z, then the color identifying device calculates values x=X/(X+Y+Z), y=Y/(X+Y+Z), and z=Z/(X+Y+Z). Of these values x, y, z, two, e.g., the values x and y, are plotted on a chromaticity diagram, and a color is determined from the position of the values on the chromaticity diagram.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,657B1 also reveals a reader device for outputting a signal depending on the color of a measuring surface (medium) using three photodiodes or a single color CCD sensitive to the colors of R, G, B (red, green, and blue).
The conventional color identifying device can measure the color of one medium only in one measuring cycle. If the user uses the conventional color identifying device to measure the colors of a plurality of mediums, then the user have to measure the colors of the mediums separately.
If the reader device revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,657B1 is used to measure the colors of a plurality of measuring surfaces at a time, the reader device needs to have three photodiodes or a single color CCD for each of the measuring surfaces. Consequently, as the number of measuring surfaces to be measured at a time increases, the number of photodiodes or color CCDs used also increases, resulting in an increased number of parts of the reader device.